1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a camera and, more particularly, to a global positioning system (GPS) enhanced camera for transmitting real-time trail data over a cellular/satellite communication channel.
2. Prior Art
Utility companies, such as those providing electric, gas and water service, measure the consumption of their respective services by customers via meters attached to the customer premises.
One typical system utilized by utility companies for accessing utility usage information requires one or more human meter readers to visit every customer premises and physically read each customer's utility meter, whether by visual inspection (e.g., if the meter being read is a non-machine-readable type of meter) or by use of a gun (e.g., if the meter being read is an encoder type of machine-readable meter). In practice, this system of meter reading is extremely costly and time consuming, because the utility company must pay the meter readers for the time spent traveling to and from customer sites and reading the meters. In addition, unrealized revenues due to extending credit to utility consumers for months at a time can disturb the utility company's cash flow and investment. Thus, the utility industry has recognized the need for an automated system for reading and more closely managing utility consumption.
Another application of recording cameras are in the field of security systems, including a television camera for taking a scene of a trespass upon a predetermined region at a site to be monitored, a video recorder for recording the image of the scene taken by the television camera, and a sensor for sensing a trespass and outputting a signal for starting the television camera and the video recorder. The drawback to many of these systems is that the recordings are only viewed after the trespass has taken place, instead of alerting the property owner immediately. Such systems also require hard-wired connections between devices.
Hunters often spend hours on end determining the tracks along which their prey travel, how often they do so, and what times of the day they are most likely to travel along those tracks. This procedure can often be uninteresting and especially unrewarding in the event that the track they are observing is no longer in use by the animal they are hunting. Additionally, if the hunter has more than one location to monitor, film/storage media must be kept straight to identify location of pictures taken.
Accordingly, a need remains for a GPS enhanced camera for transmitting real-time data over a cellular/satellite communication channel in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by advantageously providing a system that conveniently converge the technologies and capabilities of a battery powered picture cellular phone, a GPS data receiver and infrared motion detection devices. Such a system conveniently allows for real time data transmittal and reception, thus immediately notifying the user of the system about any activity within the vicinity of the transmitter. The present invention will be appreciated by individuals in many different fields including, but not limited to, law enforcement, hunters and private property owners.